Chicken has transitioned from a rare and expensive food to a global dietary staple, with its consumption now surpassing all other meats worldwide. The expansion of the poultry industry, starting in the US in the late 1940s and 1950s, spread to the UK, Europe, and Australasia in the 1960s and 1970s, and then to Asia and North Africa in the 1990s and 2000s. By 2019, global poultry consumption had overtaken pork. This shift is largely due to revolutions in agriculture, processing, retail, and consumption, turning chicken into a uniform component of an industrial production system that delivers vast volumes of meat at low cost. Chickens convert feed to meat more efficiently than pigs or cattle, making them cheaper to raise. Global poultry production reached 136 million tonnes in 2020, with continued growth predicted.
Despite its affordability and efficiency, the mass production of chicken carries significant environmental and health costs. Feed, particularly soya, accounts for 50-60 percent of the sector's greenhouse gas emissions. Over three-quarters of the world's soya crop is used for animal feed, with nearly half going to poultry, contributing to deforestation. Furthermore, waste materials from poultry farming, such as litter and manure, can contaminate air, soil, and water with pesticide residues, pathogens, pharmaceuticals, and heavy metals. The use of antibiotics in meat production also contributes to the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance.
Advocates for an agri-environmental transition propose reducing meat consumption, phasing out intensive farming for free-range and organic methods, and diversifying feed away from soya to alternatives like pea and insect protein. Such changes would also improve animal welfare. However, returning to a poultry-free diet is highly unlikely due to poultry's efficiency and its role in providing nutritional security globally. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization predicts poultry will be the fastest-growing meat sector this decade as populations and incomes rise.
Regulators and the industry face the challenge of balancing the benefits of efficient poultry production with urgent environmental and health concerns. Providing incentives for reduced meat consumption and more sustainable production methods could significantly mitigate the industry’s environmental impact, allowing continued poultry consumption without severe ecological damage. Currently, there are an estimated 66 billion broiler chickens at any given time, equating to eight per person on the planet.
